Bottle of White House beer sells for $1,200

1/8/13 5:31 PM EST

Official White House photo by Pete Souza

A bottle of the White House's famed homebrew sold for $1,200 at a charity auction, Obamafoodorama reports:

The single bottle of White House Honey Ale that President Obama presented to Minnesota resident Brad Magerkurth [above] last August has fetched $1,200 at auction, a price usually reserved for rare wines. The President gifted Magerkurth with the bottle during an off-the-record stop at the Coffee Connection in Knoxville, Iowa while on a campaign bus tour ...

... Ten people paid a total of $1,200 to share the 12-ounce bottle, with the proceeds going to the University [of Minnesota's] Amplatz Children's Hospital. The moment was ripe with ceremony, with a big crowd gathered around a stage in the stadium to watch as the plain brown long neck--unlabeled, because it was from the President's own private supply--was opened.

"The University of Minnesota marching band played Hail to the Chief, and then we cracked open the beer," Magerkurth said. "We all shared it on the stage."

The ale has become something of a regular souvenir handed out by the president and White House officials. One small business owner memorably left the West Wing after a fiscal cliff meeting in November declaring "I got beer! I got beer from the White House!"